JAMAICA COMPUTERS STOLEN http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Thieves-raid-offices-of-Corporate-Area-charities_11010650


Thieves raid offices of Corporate Area charities

TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com
Tuesday, March 13, 2012


DEPRAVED thieves on the weekend raided the offices of two Corporate Area charities, making off with hundreds of thousand dollars worth of computers and other items.

The organisations hit were Hands Across Jamaica For Righteousness (HANDS) and Wogis Ministries International, which are both located on the Youth For Christ premises at 2 Acacia Avenue in the Cross Roads area.

 A third office on the premises, that of land surveyors DC Brown and Associates, was also broken into, but the founder Dudley Brown was up to yesterday still checking if anything was missing.

At the HANDS offices, four computers and a printer were stolen. At Wogis, the thieves made off with a percolator, children's clothing and some packages that the organisation was preparing to deliver to schools during Child's Month.

The total loss at Wogis is estimated at $40,000.

The break-ins were discovered yesterday morning and the police notified.

Yesterday, HANDS' cultural director Edna Brooks said that the theft has hampered the work of the organisation and its preparation for the launch of its Jubilee 2012 campaign on March 25.

"...All of the invitations that we were planning to send out and all the information on our campaign were on the computers," Brooks told the Observer.

"We need our computers and we are hoping that the public will help us to get them back or help us to get some new ones," she lamented.

The campaign will focus on promoting the principles enshrined in the Jamaica's motto, anthem and pledge, which HANDS believes is God's spiritual, moral and social plan for the island.

Meanwhile, Elaine Richards, founder of the Wogis Charity, said that the children and less fortunate persons, who are served by the organisation will be deeply affected.

"This will definitely set us back because if a child comes to us for help now we won't be able to respond. That which we would have used to help the poor we will now have to use to replace the damaged doors and locks," said Richards.

The doors to the offices broken into are without grilles and there is no security system. The organisations said that they simply cannot afford them. As a result they are pleading for the public's assistance in securing the offices.